Association of the Absolute Archetype (AAA)
When the Aereni doppelganger Edam Fudstuv worked for the Undying Court as a mole in the Cabinet of Faces, one of the contacts he acquired was the bored House Sivis accountant Feta Passendale d'Sivis. Feta provided him with information detailing the locations of magical items in the city, which he used in his plans. Edam soon discovered that the Cabinet had been granted techniques to create fake Dragonmarks by Argonessen in exchange for infiltrating Aerenal. He tied up this problem as he was ordered, but remained in Khorvaire in order to adventure. He had shared his philosophies with her and she professed a deep interest. He travelled with Feta for several decades, using other adventurers to investigate Xendrik and other forgotten ruins in his search for rituals that may lead to a practical crafting of the Perfect Form. Feta was particularly fascinated with relics that marked the rise and fall of the legendary races of Eberron, like the giants of Xendrik and the dragons of Argonessen. Feta always feigned interest in discussion about the Perfect Form and the metaphysical manifestation of spiritual perfection, but was truthfully bored of the life of a lowly unmarked member of a Dragonmarked House and was overjoyed to suddenly have the power that these fake marks afforded her, even if they were only pasable imitations used to gather information about the machinations within the other Houses. She helped him raise their twin children, Berliner and Banitsa. Edam had further developed the Cabinet's method to awaken latent powers of Dragonmarks...and released Feta's potential to develop a Siberys Mark of Scribing. Previously, Feta was just hungry for riches and adventure and secretly viewed Edam's strange philosophies and warped do-gooder mentality with a lot of eye-rolling and tolerance. The possibilities of something like this caused her to throw out and cease all attempts at morality and view the world and the planes beyond it as the playing field for one great game where the goal was to amass all the power possible through whatever means necessary. Even as she was bearing her twin children, she was constructing schemes to somehow use them to her benefit. It was shortly after this that Edam decided to settle in Arcanix and attempt to subtly influence the research there. Feta politely declined to join him, claiming that she thought it best if she operated freely, staying in touch with him. Edam had no problem with this and started his work in Arcanix. It was at this time that Feta used manipulation to use the talents of others as tools to amass knowledge, money, and magic. Edam had shared with her many thoughts on the metaphysical significance of the manifestation of the soul, but all she truly took from it was that souls, like everything else, could be exchanged, stored and hoarded as part of the game of life. Losing one's soul means becoming just another pawn in someone else's game. Her children took to this quickly, never being mature enough to understand nor particularly inclined to their father's lofty philosophical ideals. They later founded the AAA, using similar ideals to influence shapechangers into aiding them. Their shadow group includes other evil shapechangers who all view themselves as more or less friendly competitors in the game, but Feta takes the biggest cut from her children. Some actions that would be considered good are taken in order to extend their sphere of influence to good shapechangers - and to get rid of potential competition among the corrupt. They had no idea that Eurface would survive his trip to the Demon Wastes. They had feared he was on the verge of discovering some of their less tasteful activiites. Feta, Berliner (her son), and Banitsa (her daughter) even had a betting pool on which time frame Eurface would die in. To their surprise, he didn't. They had, without his knowledge, tagged him with a Divination sensor to monitor him and his dealings. This is how they learned of Briar, the quest to close the gates, and the necrotite. After Edam had left Arcanix with his human wife Gouda, he developed a method of creating sentient constructs by fusing a consenting Gouda with an array of magical items. The purpose that she wholeheartedly embraced was to reading and rewrite the past and the memories it left behind. The full extent of these powers could only be used with the help of another who was attuned to the construct. He had still been deceived by Feta into believing she still held to beliefs such as the Perfect Form and Non-Evaporating Utopianism, and notified her. Seizing the opportunity to further her own powers, she convinced him to share his notes on the construction and had herself transformed. While Gouda was given the ability to accumulate, merge, and alter memories and factual knowledge, Feta was given the ability to do the same for pure soul-stuff. The two were dubbed World Immulsifying, Fully Immersive Evaluation (WIFIE) Units, because they were intended to fully evaluate the every thought and memory of the world and then meld them together, preserving their souls, but sloughing off the extraneous desires that would warp the Perfect Form. Feta Passendale Fudstuv-Sivis -"Explosive Runes is for sissies." - Feta, in a letter containing a Symbol of Death NE Female Gnome Construct Beguiler 6/Cataclysm Mage 6 (Eberron Explorer's Handbook)/Heir of Siberys 3 As the true head of the Association of the Absolute Archetype, Feta is primarily concerned with increasing the Association's influence and acquiring more control, more wealth, more souls. She especially enjoys any physical representation of the power she has accrued: a magic item, a gem containing a particularly valuable soul, or just a piece of parchment containing valuable information. She takes great pride in her Siberys mark, seeing it as a symbol of her rising above not only house Sivis, but mere mortality as well. She uses it to create and hoard Symbols of Death regardless of whether she has an immediate use for them or not. She has such Symbols on seals, cloaks, banners, dishes, and other mundane things. She also has a strong interest in the rise and fall of ancient civilizations because she believes there is something to be learned from exchanges of such large amounts of power. Normal Form: Feta appears to be a very strange looking gnome. Not quite deformed, as she still retains a kind of disturbing beauty, her head seems oddly out of proportion and strange symbols seem to shimmer across her face from inside of her clothes. This is the light catching her Siberys mark, and, on occasion, traces of false dragonmarks. The back of her skull is actually prosthetic and can be detached, revealing an extradimensional space lined with a matrix of Khyber dragonshards. Her arms and legs appear slightly bulky, because magical materials, notably Khyber shards, have been implanted around her. She prefers to hide the auras emitted by these with magic. When ready to synch with somebody, she undergoes a disturbing transformation: Her neck extends to freakish proportions, her arms spread out, and new...appendages grow from her shoulderblades and pelvis, while a protective membrane covered in chitin covers her torso. The growth from her pelvis resembles a kind of chair, where a willing spellcaster can sit to become synched with her. This results in the pseudopods from the shoulderblades extending down, fusing with the synchers skull. New appendages grow, forming a second rib cage, resembling a macabre cockpit for the syncher. Membranes grow on either side of the ribcage, sealing the syncher inside. If both Feta and the syncher wish, the syncher can perceive the world using Feta's senses. (Feta is considered Large in this form and can synch with Medium or smaller creatures that she has a personal bond with) Feta-WIFIE Unit 2: At will SLA: Trap the Soul (Spell Completion Only). The back of her head can be removed, revealing a small, extradimensional clockwork chamber where crystals are kept to contain souls. Living Construct traits. A gem worth 1000 gp/HD must be manually inserted into the soul-chamber to capture a soul of enough HD. When synched with someone capable of casting Magic Jar, the spell instead can be cast as a long range area spell, transferring the targets of the spell (max. 2/caster level in a 60 ft. Radius) into gems. The price of the material components is tenthed (100 gp per HD of a target). Each use drains one use of Magic Jar from the synched person. She is still limited by the number of gems in the soul-chamber. Banitsa Passendale Fudstuv "The only changeling I trust is my brother, and even then, how would I know it's him?" -Banitsa Passendale Fudstuv NE 76 year old Female Zilargo-Changeling* rogue 5/Chameleon 5/Cabinet Trickster 5/ Despite being most similar to her gnome mother in personality, Banitsa has fully developed the abilities she inherited from her doppelganger father. She developed her latent mindreading capabilities by joining the Cabinet of Faces, where she gladly assisted in racketeering, blackmail, and other activities that her father has tried to steer the Cabinet away from. As a mindreader, she has a particular greed for secrets, especially those precious ones that are recorded nowhere but inside the mark's mind. She is particularly curious about the world beyond the Gates. Although she is aware that the invaders will upset the balance of power and render much of the information for blackmailing useless, the opening of the Gates brings a new world and new opportunities. She wants the gates sealed, but not before she discovers a way to travel between the two worlds without them, giving her a monopoly on travel between Eberron and the world of the invaders. Berliner Passendale Fudstuv "Of course I don't think I can do anything. Sometimes I have to coherce, manipulate, or force somebody to give me their skills" -Beriner Passendale Fudstuv NE 76 year old Male Zilargo-Changeling* Rogue 1 (Racial level from Races of Eberron)/Factotum 3 (Dungeonscape)/Chameleon 10 (Races of Destiny)/Warshaper 1 (Complete Warrior) Having observed the group's mission to seal the Gates through a divination sensor secretly implanted in an unwitting Eurface, Berliner (along with his mother and sister) wants to close the gates, perceiving the invading army as a threat to the AAA's influence. He also has a keen interest in necrotite and wants to learn more about it's value. *Not nearly as common as the reality-seeking changelings of Aerenal, Zilargo changelings are the descendents of doppelgangers and gnomes. Like Aereni changelings, the only real difference from changelings with human ancestors are their lifespan (the same as gnomes) and some minor physical characteristics (considerably shorter than other changelings, but still Medium size). They usually become passers, utilizing their racial powers to gather secrets and fuel the elaborate networks of favors and blackmail that are part of the gnomish culture.